{"id":4066,"date":"2015-07-28T16:50:31","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T20:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=4066"},"modified":"2015-07-28T16:50:31","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T20:50:31","slug":"life-interrupted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2015\/07\/life-interrupted.html","title":{"rendered":"Life Interrupted"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"axiom_46\"<\/a>I’ve been thinking a lot about interruptions lately. When I meditate in the mornings, I prefer to do it at a time when I won’t be interrupted by others. Yet, even in the most protected environment, interruptions are inevitable. My mind will interrupt me far more than any ambient noise or demands from my environment.<\/p>\n

This thought is freeing. I don’t have to worry so much about external conditions. I can meditate anywhere no matter how noisy as long as I am willing to include what is happening.<\/p>\n

The reflexive tendency, however, is to exclude what is happening–to draw lines around what we think should be happening or should not be happening. Inclusion\/exclusion requires effort and can give rise to overt or subtle stress.<\/p>\n

When interruptions occur we can think they are interfering with our meditation but this is not really the case. It’s only an attitude, a misconception that we can change.<\/p>\n

The goal of mindfulness practice is to monitor interruptions and to be able to work with them. The goal is not to eradicate interruptions; this is not practical. The goal is to notice and to redirect attention. In a sense, we are stitching over the small rifts in attention that occur with interruptions, whether these are internal or external.<\/p>\n

If you really pay attention to the functioning of your mind, you might notice that no matter how chaotic your external environment is, your internal space may have even more interruptions. This is not a problem and not something wrong with your mind.<\/p>\n

Introverts are especially prone to feeling disrupted by interruptions. It’s hard to get back into that deep track of thought or focus. The kind of “interruption mending” we do during meditation can be good practice for the other interruptions in our life–like those at work, home, and wherever life finds you.<\/p>\n

Since interruptions are inevitable, we can make them part of our practice. Each time the mind goes somewhere else other than the present moment, instead of seeing this as a nuisance, look upon it as an opportunity to become more adept at handling interruptions.<\/p>\n

Life will never be uninterrupted and in letting that particular hopefulness go, we can find ease in this moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been thinking a lot about interruptions lately. When I meditate in the mornings, I prefer to do it at a time when I won’t be interrupted by others. Yet, even in the most protected environment, interruptions are inevitable. My mind will interrupt me far more than any ambient noise or demands from my environment.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,732,964,8,9,19,1],"tags":[296,1029,807,21],"class_list":["post-4066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-introverts","category-meditation","category-mindful-living","category-mindfulnesss","category-stress-reduction","category-the-laboratory","tag-equanimity","tag-handling-interruptions","tag-introverts-2","tag-mindfulness"],"yoast_head":"\nLife Interrupted - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2015\/07\/life-interrupted.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life Interrupted - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve been thinking a lot about interruptions lately. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4066"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4071,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions\/4071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}